Oracle 12.1.0.2 is out, after lots of announcements the product has finally been released. I had just extended my 12.1.0.1.3 cluster to 3 nodes and was about to apply the July PSU when I saw the news. So why not try and upgrade to the brand new thing?

What struck me at first was the list of new features … Oracle’s patching strategy has really changed over time. I remember the days when Oracle didn’t usually add additional features into point releases. Have a look at the new 12.1.0.2 features and that would possibly qualify to be 12c Release 2…

In summary the upgrade process is actually remarkably simple, and hasn’t changed much since earlier versions of the software. Here are the steps in chronological order.

./runInstaller

I don’t know how often I have type ./ruinInstaller instead of runInstaller, but here you go. This is the first wizard screen after splash screen has disappeared.